Monday Memo
November 8, 2010
Dear Parents,
I hope everyone had a great weekend. For those of you looking for this on the web, my new blog is: http://MallensMemo.blogspot.com I hope to always put my Monday Memo on that. It will also be on the Jacobson Blog space as a link. I appreciate your attendance at conferences this year. The communication between parents and teachers is critical to the success of your child’s education. I appreciate all you do for your child!
This week during reading we will be starting a new unit. The unit is entitled “That’s Amazing” and involves stories with suspenseful plots. We will start with a great Chris Van Allsburg story called “The Stranger”. We will be working on the following skills this week: Comprehension, Vocabulary, Noting Details (which we will do a lot of in our guided reading groups), compound words, and a short introduction to poems. During our grammar lessons this week we will be moving from nouns to action verbs. Our spelling words this week are all compound words and the list is attached to this memo. We will have our centers this week consist of a vocabulary center with the vocabulary book, the Fusion Writers (practicing on our keyboarding skills), Successmaker, and a language review. Each of the students are reading a Beverly Cleary book for the month of November. Thanks for helping them see the importance of reading each night for 20 minutes!
In Math this week, we are continuing on our multiplication and division chapter. We will be doing some problem solving this week. We will continue with our daily review through the use of the Drops in a Bucket review program. That is such a great program that helps review so many important math concepts. When the students are finished with all of their math work, they can play a math menu game. Thank-you for helping the students work on their multiplication facts at home. That is so important towards their math work now and especially in the future.
We are starting a new unit in Science. We will be doing an overview of the systems of the body. We will finally finish this week with the Southwestern Region of the United States. Look for a study guide to come home for a test to be the next day. At this point, I am not sure but shooting for Wednesday for the test.
I sent home a sheet detailing what the reading incentive committee would like each person to bring for the soldiers. (Remember our reading incentive this month is Star Servicemen and Servicewomen). For this week, they would like office supply type of things, which include books, magazines, word searches… Things to help occupy their mind when they are off duty. We had a great assembly on Wednesday kicking off this month and the students who won the reading incentive awards for the month were given their reward by a soldier who is a BKEA alum, Lucas Beenken. Our two winners this month were Katelyn Fekkers and Gustavo Suarez. Each person who passes a reading counts quiz during October received a reading tattoo as well. Refer to the reading incentive sheet I sent home last Friday that details what 4th grade is doing for the month of November to qualify for our reading incentive drawing.
Lastly, I would like to thank our wonderful room parents, Jerri and Todd Fekkers, Michelle Sorenson, Julie Berneman, and Patty Lane for the awesome party they threw for us for our fall party. They did an amazing job and the kids had a truly great time! They took lots of things home with them! We had fun parading our costumes at the nursing home and Belle Haven. Each place also provided the kids with a treat! What a fun day!!
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to call or email me!
Sincerely,
Chris Mallen
Phone: 444-3093 (Home) 444-4300 ext. 336 (School)
Email: chris.mallen@belmond-klemme.k12.ia.us
